24, Part 1

“All right,” senior analyst Chloe O’Brian said, scrunching her face in an expression of annoyance. She walked into Buchanan’s office in CTU headquarters and saw that his boss Karen Hayes also was there.

“Chloe,” Buchanan said, “Jack Bauer has been locked up in a Chinese prison for the last couple of years. We made a political decision not to attempt his rescue because we didn’t want to risk an international incident.”

“Yes, I know all that,” she said, looking annoyed. “Can I go back to work?”

“The situation has changed. We need Jack back here, immediately. So we want you to hack into Chinese prison surveillance cameras until you can pinpoint his location. Once we know where he is, we’ll ask you to disable China’s radar system long enough for us to fly in a CTU team to break him out.”

“What’s the emergency?”

Buchanan glanced at Hayes, who said, “The president has gone berserk. He wants to send another 21,000 troops into Iraq, in defiance of the advice of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report, his top military commanders, leaders in Congress and the will of the American people.”

“So what do you expect Jack to do?”

“We’re going to send him in to kidnap President Bush and bring him here for interrogation. We have serious questions about his motives.”

“Won’t that get us in trouble?”

Buchanan said, “There are bigger issues at stake here. This war was a monumental blunder, but we were willing to write that off to bad intelligence and poor judgment by nutty neo-conservatives and a president with the intelligence of plankton. This decision suggests there may be darker forces at work — and we need to find out what they are.”

“Oh, all right,” she said, annoyed.

7-8 a.m.

A bearded Bauer arrived at CTU headquarters with a battered team of rescuers. Buchanan welcomed him warmly and brought him into his office.

“Jack,” Buchanan said, “you're looking well, under the circumstances. Is that a bullet wound in your head?"

"It's nothing serious. Why am I here?"

"We need you to kidnap the president, bring him back here and torture him until he reveals why he wants to send 21,000 more American troops into the middle of an Iraqi civil war.”

“You understand that that’s illegal.”

“We do. We’ll probably have to arrest you afterward and fake your death in an attempted escape.”

“OK, I’ll do it. Can I see my daughter?”

“She fell into the cougar enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo and was gravely mauled. When she recovers, we’ll convey your best wishes.”

“OK, let’s go.”

8-9 a.m.

A hooded, handcuffed President Bush was led into CTU headquarters and taken to an interrogation cell.

Buchanan asked Bauer, “How did it go?”

“Dick Cheney was quail hunting on the White House lawn as we were carrying Bush out. He opened fire on us with his shotgun.”

“Any casualties?”

“He wounded seven tourists.”

Buchanan grimaced. “That’s bad luck. Maybe we can write it off to a hunting accident. I’ll have Chloe alter the White House surveillance tapes.”